


The Future Freaks Me Out

by fairytalehearts



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, High School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 23:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5685724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalehearts/pseuds/fairytalehearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucas knew that college was coming- and that his friends would be splitting up. He just didn't think it would happen before Junior Year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lucas at the Train Station

**Author's Note:**

> Maya goes to the Arts High School, Farkle to the Science Magnet and Riley and Lucas go to public school. I just wanted a place to put my GMW headcanon.

“You said you had an interview at _some place_ downtown.” Lucas looked up at the building in front of them, his girlfriend wearing paint splattered overalls that were distractingly short. Her hair had streaks of green in it, that definitely were not there yesterday and her makeup was applied with a laser’s precision.

“Did I not mention it was in Rhode Island?” Maya winked, pulling on his hand and towards the train. He did not tell his parents he was going to Rhode Island. She _definitely_ did not tell her parents. At the time he thought it was weird that she asked him to go with her but if she was asking for something he would do it. Every time.

Taking their seats, he motioned for her to take the window seat. Tossing her huge bag up in the overhead bin, he did a quick look around to make sure they weren’t in a car with a bunch of creepers. She brought art supplies. Three portfolios, three personal essays and apparently one change of clothing for each of them.

Putting the pieces together in his mind, Lucas sat down and grabbed her hand, “Did you bring Shawn’s credit card?”

“Of course.” Maya shrugged. He was there to buy her things. Great.

It was junior year. It was too early to be thinking about scary things like Maya going away to Art School. But she had gotten an interview and she’d been so excited. He’d gone home for a few weeks over the summer but then he had football practice most days and she’d locked herself in Riley’s room for the whole month of July working on her portfolio. It was August and school started next week and he’d thought they’d have more time.

“I thought a little weekend trip would be nice. You know- just me and Huckleberry.”

Lucas didn’t know why he suddenly clenched every time she mentioned being alone with him, but he did. She thought it was cute. He knew she was hinting at- other things.  Which were hard to do when she sent most of her time at Riley’s house and their teacher, one of his favorite teachers was there.

Their car was relatively empty, save for the very familiar mop of blonde hair three rows up.

Maya noticed it the same second he did and she clamped her hand over his mouth before he said anything.

“I asked you, my yokel of a boyfriend/man candy to accompany me to Rhode Island. Because I knew you wouldn’t like it if I went alone and because my best friend has been away all freaking summer at her summer program. I wanted to spend an excessive amount of time making out with you. Alone. And if you open your mouth, think about that. Think about the extra clothes I did not pack for myself but the pajamas.”

He was Lucas, he would open his mouth. Just like she was Maya and would try to stop him. As much as the pajamas sounded interesting- they didn't leave anyone behind. Ever.

Biting gently at her finger she squeaked at him, alerting Farkle to their presence.

“Farkle! Come sit with us.” Maya groaned, leaning over to kiss him quickly before they were interrupted. Their friend smiled happily, almost cutting off an old woman to sit next to them. It was the right thing to do.

“I’mgraduatingearlyandIdidnttellyouguysbutiwaswaitlistedatHarvardandnowtheywanttoseeme.”

Farkle looked at Maya. Looked at him. He looked at Maya. Maya looked at Farkle. Looked at him.

Mentally replaying what Farkle just said, he got to the same conclusion as Maya but her response was to punch him in the arm.

“Sorry.” All three of them chorused. Farkle and Maya turned to him and he shrugged.

“I’m supposed to stop her from attacking people.” Lucas explained. Apparently Maya had become accustomed to holding his right hand with her left and started punching with her right, “So, uh. You got into Harvard. As a Sophomore in High School.”

The unsaid “and I didn’t tell Riley” was really the icing on cake. Riley had spent the summer in D.C. at a Youth Leaders Camp, and despite the skyping and snapchatting and- everything, he knew Maya and Farkle were taking it hard. This was the first summer they’d spent apart since- birth.

And if Farkle got into Harvard then things were really going to change.

Maya’s grip on his hand became almost painful and if that wasn’t his throwing hand he’d gladly let her break all of his fingers if it meant she wasn’t hurting anymore.

She gently untangled their fingers and balled her hand into a fist.

Farkle noticed her lack of movement and frowned quizzically at them.

“That’s his throwing hand. He’s the captain with an average of 45 points per game, he’s posed to be the youngest all-state conference player in 67 years. And that’s just in football. In baseball he’s at like .491, which is basically half and then bull riding- he can’t do any of that stuff with a broken hand in the off-season.”

Sometimes Maya really surprised him. To be honest she surprised him everyday in new and sometimes frustrating ways but she really cared about him. Even with the teasing and the torturing and kidnapping. She hated going to games but could rattle off his stats to anyone at the drop of a hat. But she was there every Friday with his numbers painted on her cheeks even if her cheerleading coach didn’t approve.

“I love you.” He blurted leaning forward to kiss her forehead, “So much.”

She blushes crimson before she remembers Farkle was still there. “What the hell are we gonna tell Riley?!?!”

“Wait, why are you guys on a train headed to-”

Lucas put his head in his hands, praying for a train derailment to kill them all so they wouldn’t have to deal with this, “Take your problem, take away all the smartsy stuff and then put in artsy stuff.”

Farkle swearing was almost enough to snap him out of his new funk. Almost.


	2. Riley In DC

Riley pushed her hair out of her face, and made sure her outfit was properly pressed, each button in place. Despite the professionalism expected at her “summer camp” she was Riley Matthews. Adjusting the headband Maya had made her, she grinned at her reflection in the mirror, the bright blue in her hair making her standout among the forty other girls in the picture.

She had done everything in her power to get ready for the camp, and had even prepped Maya to come. Her grades weren’t great but they certainly weren’t horrible, but they had all the extracurriculars, and as she had sent in their applications, Maya had confessed that she didn’t’ want to go.

_“Riles, I love you. But I do not want to go to camp where there are no arts and crafts for the whole summer. It’s really crunch time for me to get my portfolio in order for interviews next year.”_

And Riley couldn’t argue with that. Flagging her dorm mate- Hannah Matthews (no relation) down, the two of them walked arm and arm towards the front lawn for their group picture. After their picture they were having lunch and then visiting the president in the white house.

She had learned a lot about herself. And politics.

Mainly that she no longer wanted to be a lawyer like her Mom. Instead of saving the world one client at a time, she could save groups of people at once.

She also learned that making friends was so much easier when you had similar interests. Hannah was quickly her second best friend within minutes and despite disagreeing about things, they really got along well. She was from Nebraska and the first girl in her school to be Debate Captain, Student Body President and Prom Queen. As a _sophomore._

Feeling her phone buzzing in her pocket, she motioned for Hannah to stop for a second, Uncle Shawn’s face on her screen.

“Shawnnnayy-”

Her uncle had never caught her off. Ever. Which was really shocking when he did, “-Do you know where Maya is? She, Farkle and Lucas are missing and she withdrew a bunch of money from my account and when I called Lucas’ house he had taken his car hours ago and then I had to talk to Minkus and Farkle left there around the same time- her phone’s off and so is his and-”

Thinking back to their breakfast conversation, Riley stopped short.

She hadn’t called Maya that morning. Everyday: wakeup, call Maya, get ready. She hadn’t even called last night because they had taken a day trip to Virginia and she’d fallen asleep on the bus, wanting to be well-rested to see the President and to ask her about Nuclear Energy-

“I haven’t talked to Maya since Monday, Uncle Shawn.” Riley said quietly not liking her answer any more than he did, “If she’s with Farkle and Lucas they won’t let anything bad happen to her.”

She promised to find out where Maya was when she had free time.

But then she forgot. It was late, she would see Maya tomorrow and grill her about it then.


	3. Maya Freaking Out

After they had conceived a very gentle, elaborate plan for telling Riley she ate lunch and went to walk outside with the smokers to stretch her legs.

Which is then the nerves set in.

She had executed her sneaking out plan flawlessly and then almost missed the train and then she started panicking. About her outfit. About her portfolio. About Riley. Lucas arm shot out and he pulled her through the closing doors and ushering her back towards their seats.

“RISD is a huge deal.  I mean a HUGENORMOUS deal. Am I talented enough? Good enough? Strong enough? Why didn’t I wear a damn dress?”

Huckleberry pulls her into his lap and pressed their foreheads together, “You are a smart, beautiful, talented artist and no one can take that away from you.”

She starts babbling, about artists she liked, ones she didn’t her art supplies coming with her, her portfolio, his eyes, she doesn’t shut up until Farkle falls asleep and Lucas goes to get her some water because she kept gesturing towards her mouth because she was thirsty and then they were Rhode Island.

Lucas was getting an uber and he had twelve missed calls from his parents. Her parents.

But she couldn’t worry about that. She had an appointment to get to.

Her heels clicking against the flooring, she shouldered her three portfolios and let Lucas call their parents.

“Maya Hart- I have a 2PM with Ms. Laughlin?”

If she thought they were going to critique her portfolio she was wrong. Ms. Laughlin had two student assistants, two other professors with magnifying glasses and a camera recording her. Standing in front of the panel she went for broke and showed them all three.

One of the students got her a stool and she sat in absolute silence for the longest two hours of her life. Checking her watch she was about to fall asleep when one of the professors clearing his throat.

“Did you take these pictures, Ms. Hart?”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

“Ms. Hart, you are the youngest student we’ve ever seen- even from LaGuardia that’s an accomplishment.” Ms. Laughlin nodded, shuffling through the pile of photographs and removing some of them from the binding. “These two are the strongest, this one should be removed- it is a strong piece though, and these three I’d like to buy the originals.”

A student, the one who’d grabbed the stool took the reject piece, “This is genius. I would just rework the color scheme and it would be much stronger. You said you sing too- Kelly did you see her bicycle?”

“Kelly” did not seem too impressed with her bicycle, “Her drawing of the boyfriend playing football was better.”

They asked her about her artistic influences and one of the boy left to get coffee and came back with Lucas.

“I take it back, your drawing of him was better than the bicycle. He was just sitting out there with your gear- sleeping.”

He looked into her art bag, the one she made herself (with Farkle’s help) to hold the paints upright from a clothesline, with pockets for her brushes and three small canvasses.

“I take art seriously- Panel People- and if you didn’t like what you saw, I am fully prepared to paint you something.”

Another hour and she’s standing with an early acceptance letter to the Rhode Island School of Design. They had her sign things and then Ms. Laughlin was cutting her a check for 3,000 dollars, Lucas getting her address to send her paintings to. More paperwork. The guidance counselor was explaining to her that she would need to get her GED and that they would be seeing her winter semester.

“I am so freaking proud of you, Em.” Lucas pun her around in a few circles before kissing her there in the quad, in front of god and actual art students that would be her peers. “My girlfriend got into college! Like a legit college for artsy people! Also we’re both grounded.”

“What am I gonna do without you and Riles? Farkle?”

“You’re going to do fine. Brown is a Division I school. I can apply here in two years.  It’s like an hour to Harvard and if Farkle’s day went anything like yours, you got this.”

“I love you. And I might be freaking out a little. But we need to go to a bank before this check bounces.”

Turning her phone back on, she dialed her father and enjoyed his hyperventilating, “I am so sorry, Dad. But I had to do this and I will be on the first train home tomorrow, but Shawn- I got in. I got in!”

Her next call _would_ be to Riley.  If she knew how to tell her.

The two of them head to her hotel and Maya tucks herself against Huckleberry’s chest and cries. She wasn’t sure if they were happy or sad but she couldn’t windowsill with her best friend until tomorrow and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be ready for that difficult conversation.


End file.
